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Post #2-COM0015

Strong and Weak Organizations On Social Media

I feel that brands associated with popular culture are always at the forefront of generating the best online content. I know there are obviously thousands of brands not associated with entertainment content as well who blend popular culture into their brand messages, but I think that companies and brands such as Cineplex Entertainment and Informa Canada do a really good job at demonstrating how passionate they are about their fans and what they bring to consumers. Their passion shows across their social media.

Then there are also brands who produce fantastic products that everyone loves, but they can’t seem to engage outside of the retail space. That is why I believe the brand Capezio Shoes is among those that lack in the social media department.

Cineplex Entertainment utilizes their social media as a listening tool to record consumer complaints and compliments, but they also engage with their customers. On their Facebook site, one of the first items you will see is a “Get In Touch” message portal. It also lists the response rate as being 86% which is pretty good.

To a consumer, seeing something like this is reassuring. When consumers are upset about a product or service, they want to vocalize it and be heard, not just by the company, but also by other consumers. Inviting your consumers to message you and receive a nearly immediate response lets them know you are present as a company and are actively listening. Cineplex does a good job of trying to understand and sympathize with their consumers which is one of the goals for any B2C company (Algonquin College, 2012). Informa Canada also demonstrates their listening skills across their social media.

Informa Canada (Fan Expo Canada) actively listens to consumers when they have questions during in from all over the country and from he U.S.

Generating content and fostering communities across your social media is a large part of success for B2C companies and both Cineplex and Informa Canada can achieve this goal very easily. Consumer generated content comes almost naturally when you have so many fans ready and willing to shoot their mouths off about their favourite film, celebrity, comic book artist, or sci-fi TV show. Not only is there plenty of conversation but these companies have also given consumers the tools to share content and participate in online events such as the recent scavenger hunt by Cineplex for a trip to NYC.

Of course, let’s not forget the goal of a B2C company is to sell. Both Cineplex and Informa have buttons to sales for buying tickets and e-gift cards. I don’t know what their level of online sales are, but I can imagine all the events and discussions probably lead to a decent number of sales because their social media platforms are providing the consumer with the content and immediate accessibility to purchase. For example, I ended up clicking on “Buy Tickets” in the Fan Expo FB page and bought my tickets via their main page portal. I didn’t have to go and exit out of FB to get to their website because it was already linked. These two companies rely on content and consumer engagement to achieve online sales; all their content is geared towards engaging the consumer and gathering them all in one place and making their sites and social media pages the go-to for information.

Capezio Shoes does not seem to fully realize or utilize the power of social media to their advantage. For a company that sells a product such as shoes, they do not have a very good listening strategy online, and there is nothing that discerns their FB page from an ordinary flyer or ad in a magazine.

Unlike other companies on FB and Twitter, they do not openly invite consumers to connect with them. You can message them, but this is not out in the open and is kind of hidden. They do seem to reply.. but it’s mostly a very robotic response. They also have no events on the go except for 1 a while back. This brand has no form of engagement other than a very 1 way communication style. They are using FB as an extension of their website to market their products to consumers.

If they had a better communication style with their consumers I think they could be a better brand on social media. They need to communicate directly with consumers in a more positive and personal manner, don’t only send a direct communication when there is a complaint, actually talk to your consumer to start conversations (Algonquin College, 2012). As for lack of content it clearly means they are using FB and Twitter to “focus on their internal marketing” and not providing any real value or entertainment value to drive consumers to their social media (Algonquin College, 2012).

This is why I feel that Capezio fails in the area of social media strategy.